Manufacture of footwear and prefabricated ribs for footwear insoles



Dec. 5, 1967 L. c. w ODELL 3,355,754 MANUFACTURE OF FOOTWEAR AND PREFABRICATED RIBS FOR FOOTWEAR INSOLES Filed July 20, 1964 2 Sheets-Sheet l Dec. 5, 1967 L. c. w. ODELL 3,355,754

MANUFACTURE OF FOOTWEAR AND PREFABRICATED RIBS FOR FOOTWEAR INSOLES I Filed July 20 1964 I 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 @M WM @4244 United States Patent 3,355,754 MANUFACTURE OF FODTWEAR AND PRE- FABRICATED RIBS FOR FOOTWEAR INSOLES Leslie Charles William Odell, Wymington, England, assignor to Faire Brothers & Company Limited, Leicester, England Filed July 20, 1964, Ser. No. 383,805 Claims priority, application Great Britain, July 29, 1963, 30,021/63; Dec. 10, 1963, 48,808/63 1 Claim. (Cl. 12-445) This invention relates to the manufacture of footwear and to materials for use in such manufacture, particularly to ribbing which is attachable to an insole for forming a rib to which the upper can be lasted.

Preformed ribbings have been used extensively in the manufacture of welted footwear. Such ribbings consist of or comprise canvas or other tape longitudinally folded to provide a medial rib-forming portion and abreast attachment flanges pre-coated on their bottom faces with a cement which is dry when the ribbing is sold but is reactivated at the time of laying the ribbing onto the insole. In the lasting of the upper it is staple side-lasted to the attached rib and the welt is later sewn in by horizontal stitching passing through the upper and the rib. Apart from Goodyear welted footwear this basic method can be applied in variant constructions, e.g., the Veldtschoen welted construction in which the welt seam is formed through a lining of the upper and the rib, the margin of the upper itself being turned back and subsequently secured onto the welt.

In various other types of footwear construction including some direct moulded footwear, some cemented sole footwear and various types of slipper, use is made of a cement-lasting techniques in which at least part of the margin of the upper is cemented flat onto the bottom of the insole or sock (which latter is hereafter included in the term insole). Various machines are available for cement-lasting footwear. These machines operate to wipe the upper margin inwardly from the insole edge into firm contact with the bottom face of the insole. Depending on the type of machine employed, the margin of the upper as well as the bottom face of the insole at its margin may be pre-coated with cement. One of the commercially available machines requires pre-coating of the upper and insole margins with a heat-activatable cement and this becomes activated by aheated wiper roll of the machine. Another well known machine is the Thermalaster in which hot cement is applied between the upper margin and the insole by the cement-lasting machine itself just prior to the pressing of the upper margin and insole together.

One of the objects and achievements of the present invention is to provide for the use of a cement-lasting technique in the manufacture of welted footwear in which a sewing rib must be employed.

According to the present invention, prefabricated coilable ribbing for application to insoles comprises rib and attachment flange portions and is formed wholly or in part fromone or more pieces of tape bearing on one face a dry but re-activatable coating of adhesive, the said prefabricated ribbing having been formed in such a way that such coating is present on at least the bottom of the attachment flange or flanges and on one side of the rib portion.

The adhesively coated material of the ribbing is preferably a fabric.

The adhesive coating should be very firmly bedded or anchored by penetration into the tape. In the shoe manufacturing industry, cloths bearing a uniform adhesive coating which is non-tacky and permits the cloth to be 3,355,754 Patented Dec. 5, 1967 coiled but which can be activated by heat or solvent, are well known. Reference is made in particular to the cloths coated with solvent cements, especially neoprenebased cements, which are used in the manufacture of the commercially available prefabricated ribs known as the Prime, the Albeko and the Plirib. In virtue of the application of the cements in solution in an organic solvent or solvent mixture, the cement penetrates into the cloth and in consequence the cement coating is very well anchored. Such cement-coated cloths are very well suited for use in the fabrication of ribbing according to the invention. Hitherto these materials have been used in the manufacture of ribbing in such a way that the cement coating is exposed only on the bottom of the attachment flanges.

A prefabricated ribbing according to the invention may consist entirely of cement-coated fabric and as will hereafter be exemplified the ribbing may be formed from a single piece of such fabric. It is possible however to incorporate a strip of another material, e.g., a stiffening strip in the rib portion, but this is not essential, nor is it preferred.

It is also preferable for the ribbing to comprise two attachment flanges, but useful results: can be achieved with ribbing having a single attachment flange if the ribbing is laid onto the insole with the flange to the inside of the rib portion. When, as is preferred, the ribbing has two flanges, it is preferable for cement coating to be exposed on the top flange face which is contiguous with a cement-coated face of the rib portion.

Ribbing according to the invention is intended to be applied to insoles with an adhesively coated face of the rib on the outside, and the invention includes insoles to which prefabricated ribbing according to the invention has been applied in this way.

After applying ribbing according to the invention to an insole to form a sewing rib, an upper may be side cement-lasted to the rib using presently available cement lasting machinery. For example, side lasting can be performed in a Thermalaster as marketed in the United Shoe Machine Co. (Great United States of America and elsewhere by International Shoe Machine Corporation. When an insole ribbed according to the invention is fed with the lasted upper to such a machine, the hot adhesive which is normally extruded in the machine becomes applied between the upper margin and the rib and ac tivates the cement coating on the outside rib face. The wiper roll which in the ordinary flat lasting techniques for which the machine was designed serves to wipe the upper margin directly against the insole or against a layer bonded thereto, now serves to wipe the upper margin inwardly into firm contact with the rib while the insole serves as a backing support. The ribbing may be so fabricated and applied to the insole that the rib portion initially lies flat or substantially so and becomes pulled up away from the insole by the upper after lasting. However a flat lie is in no way essential and it is easier and preferable so to fabricate and apply the ribbing that the rib portion is inclined both to the horizontal and the vertical. An inclination in the region of 30 to 50 to the vertical is very suitable. However it is even possible for the rib portion to be vertical or substantially so, provided the cement-lasting machinery can temporarily press the rib portion over flat as the work feeds through the machine.

From the foregoing it will readily be appreciated that the invention makes it possible for a Thermalaster or like machine to be used in the production of welted and flat-lasted footwear.

Heel-lasting can be performed in any conventional manner and the toe lasting can be performed on a toelaster as normally used for fiat cement-lasted footwear, only minor adjustments (if any) being necessary in view of the presence of the rib to which the toe now becomes lasted rather than directly onto the insole.

The use of ribbing according to the invention is not confined to the manufacture of footwear with side or toe cement-lasting since uppers can be otherwise lasted, e.g., side staple-lasted to a rib formed by the new ribbing and manufacturers can therefore use the one type of ribbing throughout. On the other hand welted shoes in which the upper has been cement-lasted onto a rib according to the invention show notable improvements over welted shoes which have been lasted in the conventional manner for that type of footwear. The uninterrupted connection of the upper to the rib along the waist, i.e., without the pockets which are apparent after staple side-lasting, makes for a much easier welt stitching operation and a neater and tighter waist. Moreover, after welt sewing, the rib can be trimmed lower than when staples have been used so that less bottom-filler is required and in consequence lighter and more flexible footwear is possible.

A particularly preferred form of ribbing according to the invention is formed from a single strip of cementcoated fabric by folding this fabric longitudinally thereby to form one single-ply flange, one two-ply flange and a three-ply rib portion, the cement coating being exposed on the bottom of both flanges, and on the top of the two-ply flange portion and the contiguous face of the rib portion. When such a ribbing is applied to an insole with the two-ply flange outermost, the rib portion takes up a natural inward inclination. During side cementlasting, the upper becomes firmly secured along the waist, not only to the outside of the rib but also to the outer flange, with consequent improvement in the quality of the footwear.

Reference is now made to the accompanying drawings in which ribbing according to the invention and its use in footwear production are illustrated. In these drawings:

FIGURE 1 is a cross-section of one form of ribbing;

FIGURES 2a and 2b show stages in the manufacture of this ribbing;

FIGURE 3 shows part of an insole to which the ribbing has been applied;

FIGURE 4 shows the operating instrumentalities of a machine for side-lasting an upper to an insole prepared as shown in FIGURE 3;

FIGURE 5 shows an upper being cement side-lasted to an insole in the machine shown by FIGURE 4;

FIGURE 6 shows a second form of ribbing according to the invention; and

FIGURE 7 shows a third form of ribbing according to the invention.

The ribbing shown in FIGURE 1 is formed from a single tape of cement-coated cotton duck as hitherto employed in the construction of the well-known Prime rib. The cloth is over 6 ounces, e.g. 10 ounces, per square yard in weight and is of a kind conventionally used in prefabricated ribbings. The cement is based on Neoprene AC as marketed by DuPont and is applied from a solution in organic solvents, e.g. toluol and xylene, so that a uniform coating 1 of the cement covers one side of and is well bedded in the cloth. Various cement-coated cloths of this kind have been used in the industry for many years in the formation of prefabricated ribbing.

The ribbing is shown in FIGURE 1 in the flat condition in which it can be marketed in coiled form. The parallel hands a and b are bonded together, as are also the bands 12 and c, but band d is free to be hinged down about its fold line junction with band c. The ribbing is intended to be applied to an insole I to form an attached rib as illustrated in FIGURE 3. The band 0 and the portions of bands a and b overlapping band 0 form a three-ply rib portion 2; the projecting portions of Cit bands a and b form a two-ply outer flange 3 and the free hand d forms a wider inner flange 4. In virtue of the disparity in thickness between the inner and outer flanges the rib portion assumes a natural inward inclination of about 35 to 40 to the vertical. The ribbing may be mechanically laid onto insoles by means of the wellknown Prime rib-layer as presently used for laying the conventional Prime rib. The insoles are precoated with cement and the cement on the insole and the bottom of the ribbing flanges can be re-activated during the rib laying operation by directing hot air onto the work from the rib layer e.g., as described in United States Patent No. 2,875,455.

FIGURE 2 shows two stages in the operation of forming the ribbing from the adhesively-coated tape. In a first stage the tape is passed continuously between forming rolls which fold the tape about the junction line between the bands a and b. This fold is effected with the tape manufacturers cement coating 1 on the outside of the fold. On its way to the forming rolls the tape is run in contact with a latex applicator roll charged with latex adhesive so that a band of the adhesive is applied between the portions of cloth which are to form bands a and b and these bands consequently bond together. (FIGURE 2a.) Then the once-folded tape passes between a second set of forming rolls which further fold the tape into the condition shown in FIGURE 2b. One of the forming rolls is kept wetted with solvent for the cement of coating 1 so as locally to activate the cement coating over the zone of the required bond between bands b and c. Subsequently the ribbing is pressed fiat in the condition shown in FIGURE 1 and is then coiled. In the coil, portions of the adhesive coating 1 on parts of the ribbing in superposed convolutions come into contact but the cement coating is non-tacky under ordinary temperature conditions and it is found that there is no substantial tendency for the convolutions to stick together provided the pressure in the coil is not too high. The actual forming rolls are not illustrated since they are of a kind well known in tape folding operations employed in the manufacture of prefabricated ribs and may e.g., with small modifications, be as described in United Kingdom specification No. 858,429. In the actual formation of the ribbing, the folding of bands 0 and b together at the junction of the two-ply outer flange with the three-ply rib portion may be omitted if desired; this tends to increase the inward inclination of the rib portion when folding is eventually effected at that junction during the laying of the ribbing.

After preparing an insole as shown by FIGURE 3 an upper can be cement-lasted to the ribbing. FIGURE 4 shows the operating instrumentalities of a commercially available cement lasting machine known as the International Thermalaster. This machine has hitherto been used in the shoe industry for fiat side cement lasting. As the machine and its operation are so well known a very brief reference to it will here sufiice. The machine comprises a pair of conical rolls 5, a cement-extruding nozzle 6 and a spring-loaded heated wiper roll 7. In the normal use of this machine for flat side-lasting, the margin of the shoe upper is gripped between and pulled over by the rolls 5 preparatory to passage of such upper margin under the wiper roll 7 as the work is progressively fed through the machine. At a point just prior to the location of the heated wiper roll 7, hot thermoplastic cement is extruded from nozzle 6 onto the insole, beneath the margin of the upper, so that the latter becomes firmly united with the insole by the pressure exerted by the wiper roll.

The machine may be used for cement side-lasting uppers onto a rib formed on an insole as shown in FIGURE 3, the only modification to the machine which is necessary or desirable being the attachment of some form of edge guide against which the work may be pressed as it feeds, to ensure that the cement does not become applied inwardly of the rib portion where it may cause the margin of the upper to stick down onto the insole.

FIGURE shows a shoe in course of being side-lasted to a rib according to the invention, in the Thermalaster machine. The margin 8 of the upper is shown passing between the conical rolls 5 in the normal way. The rib portion 2 passes underneath these rolls. The nozzle 6 directs the cement between the upper margin and the outside face of the rib portion and the heated wiper roll 7 wipes the upper margin inwardly from the insole edge and into firm contact with the rib portion 2, the latter being temporarily pressed flat down against the inside flange of the ribbing. The hot cement de-activates the cement coating 1 on the outside face of the rib portion and a very secure bond between the waist of the upper and the rib is achieved. The upper also 'bonds to the outer flange of the ribbing and to the surface of the insole at any narrow margin which may exist at the waist between this outer flange and the insole edge.

As an alternative to cement side-lasting on a Thermalaster machine, this work may be performed on an Astra side cement laster. In that case the margin of the upper must be pre-cemented but no cement need be applied in the laster; the cement on the upper and the outside of the ribbing are activated by heat transmitted from a heated wiper roll. If desired activation can 'be promoted by means of a hot air blast or solvent applied to the work in the selected lasting machine.

Following the side lasting the toe can be lasted by a toe-laster as conventionally used in flat cement-lasted footwear, cement being brushed between the toe and the rib portion 2 before the toe margin is wiped inwardly into firm union with the rib portion.

After completion of the lasting, a welt strip can be sewn in according to conventional practice and this step can be followed by application of bottom filler (after trimming down of the rib if desired), and attachment of the outer sole.

The use of ribbing according to the invention for the attachment of a welt strip has been particularly described since this is the most important field of use of the ribbing, but it can also be used for sewing in a rand, or even for the attachment of the upper in platform sole constructions, in which latter case the ribbing can be laid with the rib portion flush with the insole edge, the outer flange being secured around such edge and onto the other face of the insole. The dimensions of the rib portion and outer flange can be appropriately chosen for this purpose.

In the production of welted or other footwear, the rib portion can be folded over against the insole instead of being trimmed, so promoting a very light and flexible construction, and when folding the rib over in this way it can be stuck to the insole or to the inner flange of the ribbing. With this possibility in mind, the inner face of the rib portion and/ or the top face of the inner flange of the ribbing can also hear a cement coating if desired. From this it will be understood that the invention includes ribbing formed so that cement coating on the tape or tapes from which the ribbing is formed, is exposed not only on one side of the rib portion and on the bottom of the attachment flange or flanges but also on the other side of the rib portion and/or on the top of the inner flange.

Two forms of ribbing according to the invention alternative to that described with reference to FIGURES 1 and 2 are shown in FIGURES 6 and 7. In the ribbing shown in FIGURE 6, two pieces of coated canvas each bearing an adhesive coating on one side, are used. One piece, bearing adhesive layer 1, forms the layer a and a second wider strip, bearing adhesive layer 1, is folded into three bands b, c and d. In the result, a ribbing similar to that shown in FIGURE 1 is obtained and it may be used in much the same way. The two strips of canvas can be secured together by application of adhesive during the forming of the ribbing, or by stitching. Alternatively, the narrower strip of canvas may be one which bears a coating of non-tacky heat-activatable or solvent-activatable adhesive on both faces and one adhesive coating may be 6 activated as it is brought into the wider strip.

The ribbing shown in FIGURE 7 is still more simple being formed from a wide strip of material and a narrow strip of material (in this case of different thicknesses) secured together over portions only of their widths so that the united portions can form a two-ply rib while the free portions can form the attachment flanges. The narrower and thicker strip 9 used for the formation of the ribbing is one which already bears a coating 1 of activatable cement on each of its faces, while the wider and thinner strip 10 bears a coating 1 of activatable cement on one face only.

If desired a strip of fibrous or other material may be incorporated between the illustrated rib-plies in any of the forms of ribbing described, but this is not essential.

A single-flange ribbing according to the invention may, e.g., be prepared by folding an adhesively-coated tape as shown in FIGURE 1 but so that the hands a and b do not extend below the band 0. When the ribbing is laid the bottom of the three-ply rib portion will be stuck solidly onto the insole and there will be only one flange, viz., that formed by band a. Preferably the ribbing will be laid with this flange located to the inside of the rib portion as in FIGURE 3 because the forces exerted on the rib by the lasted upper are directed outwardly.

The new ribbings have been developed for cement lasting purposes, but as already mentioned they can be used for staple-lasting and toe-lasting of the upper as in conventional welted constructions so that a manufacturer can use the one type of ribbing for both methods of construction.

What I claim is:

In a method of manufacturing footwear, the steps of: providing a length of ribbing having an upstanding rib portion and oppositely extending attachment flanges prefabricated from flexible strip material and bearing a dry but heat activatable cement coating with said coating present on the bottom faces of said attachment flanges and on only one side of said rib portion and on the upper face of the adjacent flange; providing an insole; disposing said length of ribbing on said insole with said rib portion adjacent a side edge of said insole and having said coated side of said rib portion facing outwardly and with the attachment flange, which is uncoated on its upper face, extending inwardly from said rib portion and having the coated bottom faces of said flanges in contact with said insole; adhesively securing said ribbing to said insole; providing an upper; cement-lasting the lasting margin of said upper to said ribbing by pulling said lasting margin of said upper over said ribbing, activating said cement coating on said rib portion and said upper flange face, and wiping the upper margin inwardly by wiper means with said rib portion being progressively and temporarily folded inwardly flat against the attachment flange having the uncoated upper face and with said lasting margin of said upper being pressed firmly against said coated side of the flattened rib portion and said coated flange whereby the margin of said upper is side cement-lasted to said attached ribbing and thereby to said insole.

contact with the band b 0:

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,147,787 7/1915 Corson 36-22 2,427,739 9/1947 Paulsen 3622 2,458,500 1/ 1949 Bertrand et al 36-22 X 2,623,306 12/1952 Griswold 36--22 2,659,912 11/1953 Kamborian 12-145 2,736,675 2/1956 Pehrson 3622 X 2,847,339 8/1958 Strickland 36-22 X 2,875,455 3/1959 Antell 12-20 PATRICK D. LAWSON, Primary Examiner. A. R. GUEST, Assistant Examiner. 

